10 Ways to Incorporate Social Media into Your Events

You want your attendees actively posting to social media and using the mobile event app. These two besties can do wonders for your event marketing efforts and your onsite attendee engagement! However, finding new and creative ways to incorporate social media into your events can be challenging. As Cvent’s social media manager, I’m constantly researching new, fun ways to make social media an integral part of the event experience. So whether your event audience is full of social media novices or professional second-screen multi-taskers, I hope you’ll find these ideas helpful when planning how to incorporate social media into your next event!

Networking Photo Challenge – Set tent cards around your networking event with different photo challenges. Not only does it serve as an ice breaker, it encourages attendees to get social! Make sure your hashtag is included on the challenges. Some examples to consider – “Take a photo with someone new you’ve just met!” “Take a photo with someone wearing the same color outfits as you.” “Take a photo with someone who shares your birthday month.”

Larger than life hashtag – Who doesn’t love big signage? Give your attendees the perfect backdrop to their Instagram photo as well as a big reminder of what your event hashtag is. In fact, put the hashtag on all of your signage, branding and even on attendee name badges!

Mirror Selfie Stations – Everyone will have to use the bathroom at some point. Bathrooms also tend to have exceptionally good lighting, perfect for taking selfies! Create removable stickers to brand the bathroom mirrors – especially full body ones – with your event hashtag, quote bubbles, or emojis.

Mobile + Social = Besties – Best friends do everything together! Make sure to take advantage of all the ways a mobile app can enable the social experience. Prominently feature the event hashtag on your splash screen and banner ads. Use push notifications to remind attendees to share. Ensure all social icons are linked to your brand’s accounts as well as encourage speakers, attendees and exhibitors to link their social accounts to their event app profiles.

Social Swag – Your event hashtag is almost as important as your brand’s logo when it comes to swag. Ensure it is on all swag items and consider giving out swag that encourages social behavior. Some ideas to consider – device chargers, “Tweet Me” / “Snap Me” stickers for name badges, selfie sticks, photo booth props, pens with stylus or hashtag temporary tattoos.

SocialWall – Integrate the social content being generated by your attendees as part of your event design with SocialWall. This event technology displays the content on your event hashtag practically anywhere using a projection screen or TVs. Attendees sharing will get excited to see themselves on “the big screen” and attendees not participating will want to join in on the fun!

#GoodEats – Food and beverage are integral parts of your event planning process and people love to take photos of food! You can keep it simple by incorporating the event hashtag on napkins, glassware, or even on the food itself. Get more complex by hosting a “name this dish” contest or have attendees vote via a Twitter poll on what should be served at the after-party.

Create Social Currency – Challenge your attendees to think of tweets as dollars and Instagram photos as upgrade passes. Set up a Twitter activated vending machine that dispenses whenever an attendee tweets a specific hashtag and username. Create a photo challenge that can only be completed on Instagram and once completed “unlocks” a pass upgrade for a VIP area.

#Help – Have a dedicated area where attendees can access social media and mobile experts for help with everything from stepping up a Twitter account to posting to Facebook from their mobile device. Hold an #AMA (Ask Me Anything) style in-person chat to answer questions for an audience that’s at various levels of social media savviness.

Have other ideas on how to incorporate social media into your events? Post a comment below!

Written by Emily Vera

Emily is the Social Media Team Lead at Cvent. She helps hospitality, travel, & event professionals adopt social media strategies that enhance the meeting experience and drive engagement. A graduate from the College of William & Mary with a degree in History, Emily is a fluent hashtag speaker and amateur photographer. Connect with her on Twitter @Social_Em or Instagram @Emily__Fritz!